The lies continued when I informed my parents I was going out with Rachael and Brittany to the drive-in. They didn’t question it and that made me feel even guiltier. But I was already deep into the side investigation and I couldn’t stop yet. Not until I knew the truth.
Instead, I met Ryan at the entrance to the drive-in and we drove to The Spider. Devereaux had allowed Ryan to finish the summer at the inn but barricaded him in the house otherwise. He was working late at the precinct, which gave Ryan and me about two hours to get whatever information we could about The Madame.
The Spider was located at the far edge of the small downtown area of Chester Bay. The carved sign at the entrance of the bar was the only indication of the place. I wiped my damp hands on my skirt and closed the car door. I’d parked across the street, not wanting to be associated with it at all.
From the ogling tough guys smoking outside, I wondered if I should have worn pants and a heavy winter jacket instead. They eyed me like wolves preying on a rabbit.
Ryan moved to the other side of me, either sensing the creepy guys or wanting to play the protective fake boyfriend role that accompanied our fake ages. He made us both twenty-one in the remarkably real-looking IDs he had procured in only two days. I hoped that it was a safe bet that no one would question that we were barely legal.
We crossed the street and entered the building. The cloud of cigarette smoke from the group of men outside followed us in and I tried to ignore it, even though I had the overwhelming urge to cough. I held my breath until the feeling subsided.
Inside, rock music blared from the overhead speakers. The room was dim and it took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust.
Ryan led us to a table in the middle of the room.
“A good vantage point,” he said over the music. No one paid us any mind. The group of smokers reentered and congregated at the dart board further back in the room. Other than that, there weren’t many other customers. A few people sat at the bar and only three tables around us had patrons. My heart sank. Would we be able to get any information from anyone? Was our plan going to be a dead end?
A petite Goth girl approached our table. Her silky black hair was tied at the nape of her neck in two small pigtails. I couldn’t help but stare at the movement of her nose and lip rings while she spoke. “IDs, please.”
We handed her our IDs. She accepted Ryan’s with no problem but spent some time inspecting mine, her unnatural violet eyes flicking from the ID to me. When she was satisfied she said, “I’m Wendy. What can I getcha?” Her accent was straight out of New York City. I’d heard enough of them every summer since people from the city flocked to our beaches.
“Two of the IPAs on draft,” Ryan said.
The girl looked at me and I glanced elsewhere. When she left I chastised myself. Why did I look away? I gave away my guilt with one look. She didn’t say anything else when she dropped the glasses and a bowl of pretzels in front of us and went to another table to check in.
I eyed the bowl. If I hadn’t seen her open up a new bag of pretzels and pour them into the bowl, I wouldn’t have gone near them.
“I don’t drink,” I said, munching on a pretzel.
“I remember. We’re not going to be here long. Don’t worry about it.”
Would Wendy be suspicious if she came back and saw neither of us drinking from our glasses? Would that cause her to second-guess our IDs and possibly call her manager to check them again? It wasn’t a risk I wanted to take.
I picked up my glass, closed my eyes, and took a large gulp of the beer. I winced while swallowing, the bitterness of the liquid burning my throat.
I couldn’t help the face I made at Ryan.
He laughed, and then gave a futile attempt at covering up his amusement with his hand.
“Har, har,” I said. “Why did you order this?”
“It helps us blend. I didn’t intend on staying long enough to drink it.”
“Well, it looks like I fit in more than you.”
He grinned and took a swig of his beer. He didn’t make a face at all.
“Show-off!”
We had worked on a line of questioning to weed out who The Madame was if my hunch was right. In Ryan’s experience with cases his dad shared with him, sometimes using a code word would work. In our case, we had the matchbook. I grabbed it from my purse and placed it on the table, opening the flap. If someone recognized it, we’d be able to tell.
My stomach fluttered. I felt as if I were in an episode of a crime-scene television show. Detectives certainly had interesting jobs, but we weren’t exactly going by the book.
We silently observed the room. The smokers threw glances our way every few minutes. I eventually turned around in my chair, ignoring them.
“You guys gonna order?” Wendy asked.
“Do you have menus?” Ryan asked.
She pointed to the chalkboard next to the bar with four options on it. That made it easier to decide.
Her eyes flitted to the matchbook and flinched. “What is that?”
“You tell me,” Ryan said, picking up on her reaction to the item.
She shook her head. “Where did you get that?”
“From a friend,” I said, picking up on Ryan’s confidence. If she reacted like that, then she must know something. My leg bounced excitedly.
“You need to get the hell out of here.” She spun around and bolted to the bar.
Ryan and I jumped off our stools, following her.
“I mean it,” she said from behind the taps. Her eyes darted around.
“You’re The Madame,” Ryan said in a low voice.
I shot a glance at him, his expression holding his accusation. I knew he was going out on a limb. I wasn’t sure it was the right play until her body visibly stiffened.
She blinked several times and sighed. “Not here.”
She indicated for us to follow her, and we did. Ryan winked at me. Did he know something I didn’t? Or was he really good at this stuff? I stuck close to him as we entered the narrow hallway leading to the bathrooms. She opened a door marked Employees Only. She held the door open for us and closed it when we were inside.
The cramped storeroom was filled with numerous food items and cleaning supplies. Ryan and I stood between two metal shelving units overflowing with sacks of potatoes. She blocked the door with her body, crossing her arms over her chest. The rim of her purple contacts was visible in her wide eyes. “Did he send you?”
I looked at Ryan and he appeared calmer than I’d ever seen him. “He did.”
She muttered a colorful flow of curse words and pulled at the ends of her hair. “I didn’t see anything, I swear. You have to believe me.”
I glanced at Ryan, waiting for him to respond.
“Look,” she said. “I only did what I was told. I sent the email and went to the designated spot. I didn’t know the kid was working with another dealer.”
The kid? Did she mean Joe?
“What happened when you went to the spot?” I asked trying to steady my trembling voice.
“The rich kid never showed. I came back here and called my boss, asking for new instructions. He gave me an address and an access code.” Access code? “I went to the mansion. Entered the code and went to the house next to the pool. The kid was there. He was a piece of work. He didn’t want to cough up the money right away. I couldn’t believe it, with a house that size and everything. He even offered me some of his stash for payment. I told him no, of course. And that’s when it happened.”
“What happened?” I asked, anxious to hear her answer.
She narrowed her eyes. “If you work for the guy in the mask, why’re you asking me all these questions?”
I hesitated, but Ryan jumped right in. “We need to make sure your story lines up with ours. If he’s satisfied with what you know, then we’ll all go on with our lives.”
She licked her lips. “Alright. That’s when he showed up.”
“Who?” I asked.
“Your boss,” she said slowly.
“Oh, right,” I said. “Go on.”
She tore her gaze away from me and spoke directly to Ryan. “Your boss gave me the money owed and told me to leave.”
“Did you get a look at him?” Ryan asked.
“No,” she said, her gaze focusing on the floor. “Only that he wore a mask over his face and a hood. It was some creepy stuff.” She looked at us as if afraid we’d take offense at her description of the guy who might have murdered Joe. “Tell him I won’t snitch. I have a kid, ya know?”
“What did his voice sound like?”
She flicked her tongue over her lip ring. “He didn’t actually say anything. He gave me the money and made a gesture for the door. I booked outta there as fast as I could. Ronnie’s gonna kill me when he finds out I made a debt for him.”
“We can put in a good word if you swear that that’s all you know,” Ryan said.
Wendy cocked her head and pressed her hands against her chest. “I swear on my mother’s grave.”
“If that’s all you know,” Ryan said.
Wendy wrung her hands together. “It is. I swear.”
“We’re going to come back if we find out you’re lying,” Ryan said.
Wendy’s lip trembled and she nodded.
She opened the door for us and we traveled down the hallway, through the main room. I picked up my pace, suddenly unable to take a full breath, and stumbled out the front door without looking back.
On the way back to the drive-in to pick up Ryan’s bike, I couldn’t help trying to figure out what happened at The Spider. We rehashed the conversation with Wendy.
“Someone murdered Joe,” I said.
“It seems that way, but we need more concrete evidence than a witness statement. Wendy didn’t actually see the masked person poison Joe.”
“Her boss was obviously upset about Joe not paying. Maybe Ronnie came back and did something about it.”
“Well, Wendy said this person was another dealer,” Ryan said. “Maybe Joe took whatever he got from that guy and overdosed.”
I shivered. “A man in a mask? It’s creepy.”
“Maybe Joe had pissed off the wrong person,” Ryan said.
The road blurred and fuzzed around the edges. I had wanted to know the truth, now that it was here. I wanted to go back to when I was naïve and thought Joe had overdosed. It was easier. Cleaner. Instead, I had the information weighing on my shoulders like a ton of bricks and there was no way I could reveal it to anyone without getting into serious trouble.
Ryan’s phone made a chirping sound, one I knew was his text notification.
“Is it your brother?” I asked, hoping Devereaux hadn’t decided to come home early.
“Stop the car!” Ryan said frantically.
My heart leaped. I looked around for a person or animal on the road. I slowed the car. “What is it?”
He waved his hands in front of him. “Keep going.” His voice was still panicked but I did what he said.
“Ryan you’re freaking me out.”
“Get to the drive-in.”
I white-knuckled the wheel for the rest of the drive and parked in two spots when we arrived at the drive-in. My mind was frantic for an explanation from Ryan. The movie had already started so no one was paying attention to us.
I unbuckled my seatbelt and turned to him. “You need to tell me why you almost gave me a heart attack.”
He turned his phone to me and I read the text.
Stay away from her. This is your only warning.
“Who is that from?”
“It’s an unknown number.”
“What do you mean?” I twisted in my seat, unable to see anything in the blackness behind my car. “Is someone following us? Is this a joke from your brother?”
“This isn’t Phil,” he said. “I think we’re in way over our heads here.”
“Ryan—”
“No, we have to stop. This was— I can’t believe I dragged you into this—”
“Ryan—”
“Cara!” he said sharply. “We’re messing with a possible murderer, don’t you understand?” He slammed his fist against the dashboard, hard enough that my glove compartment opened. He left it open and the light illuminated the confusion across his face.
“I wanted to do this,” I said. “You can’t take the blame. And we don’t know if there is a murderer. Maybe the guy was there to scare Joe and then Joe took something afterward. Like you said.”
“Why would I get this text, then? Someone saw us at The Spider. They told me to stay away from Wendy.”
“Then this has to do with Wendy, not the entire investigation. Maybe it was that Ronnie guy.”
Ryan let out a deep breath. “Maybe.”
“How would he have been able to get your number?”
He sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Let’s get home and talk about this tomorrow.”
Ryan nodded and took my hand in his. “I would never forgive myself if something happened to you.”
“Nothing is going to happen,” I said. “We’re going to be fine.”
Ryan’s gaze fixed on mine. “Call me when you get home.”
“I will,” I said, taking my hand back. An uncomfortable fluttering resided in my stomach. I didn’t alert Ryan to how much that text freaked me out, since he had already been on edge.
But we were done with Wendy. There was no reason we were in any danger. Besides, the information about the masked man wouldn’t matter if we had no idea who he was. We were once again at a dead end.